Debbie Wasserman Schultz Cuts Ties with Women’s March over Anti-Semitism

Joe Raedle/Getty Images18 Jan 2019

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), the former chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, said Friday that she will no longer associate with the Women’s March on Washington, citing its leadership’s refusal to “repudiate anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry.”

In a USA Today opinion-editorial, Wasserman Schultz wrote that after being “absolutely electrified” two years ago by the group’s promise of “sisterhood and solidarity,” she can no longer affiliate with it because it’s leadership “lock[s] arms with outspoken peddlers of hate.”

“I am not alone,” the Florida Democrat noted. “Teresa Shook, who launched the movement with her viral Facebook post, has publicly called for the co-chairs to resign, writing that Bob Bland, Linda Sarsour, Carmen Perez and Tamika Mallory ‘have allowed anti-Semitism, anti-LBGTQIA sentiment and hateful, racist rhetoric to become a part of the platform’ of the march.”

“Since that first march, I witnessed a disturbing spike in hatred aimed at Jewish homes, schools and synagogues in my own community. And with anti-Semitism and white nationalism apparently on the upswing in America and globally, the associations that Sarsour, Perez and Mallory have had with Nation of Islam (NOI) leader Louis Farrakhan have been most troubling,” she continued.

Wasserman Schultz pointed out that Southern Poverty Law Center has labeled NOI a hate organization and Mallory’s attendance at the group’s annual Saviour’s Day event last year was “especially alarming.” She also criticized Mallory for failing to denounce Nation of Islam head Louis Farrakhan, who has described Jewish people as “the mother and father of apartheid,” and responsible for “degenerate behavior that Hollywood is putting out, turning men into women and women into men.”

“Instead, she has attended Farrakhan’s speeches and posted her support for him on social media, referring to him as the “GOAT” — or, the Greatest Of All Time.,” wrote Wasserman Schultz. “Just this week, she was repeatedly asked on national television to clearly condemn him, and she instead dodged the question, taking issue with the words he chose and the fact that Minister Farrakhan is male, rather than acknowledging the hurtfulness of his rhetoric toward Jews and the LGBTQ community.”

Wasserman Schultz’s op-ed comes after the Democratic National Committee became the latest high-profile organization to quit as a sponsor for the Women’s March. Despite being under fire, the Women’s March is still slated to take place on Saturday on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.